Imagine walking along a trail scattered with sections of silicified logs splashed brilliant shades of red, orange, yellow, white, and purple. Imagine being surrounded by mesas of candy-striped blue, purple, and beige sediment layers. Imagine gazing out upon a red-, orange-, and yellow-painted badlands right next to an interstate highway. This fossil feast of color for the eyes is what you’ll see when you visit Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, located just off of Interstate 40. The Traveler’s Checklist can help you plan your trip and make the most of your time exploring the park.

El Morro and El Malpais national monuments preserve rugged, demanding landscapes that nevertheless attracted travelers, from ancestral Puebloans to early 20th century homesteaders. Today visitors study the signatures at El Morro, or peer into the lava tubes that worm beneath El Morro's surface. But there's also the backcountry of both that attract visitors who look for beauty, solitude, and perhaps a connection with those who came long before.

El Morro National Monument is one of the little gems in the crown jewels of our national parks, and even though it may not be as noticeable as its bigger cousins, it is precious just the same.